By Mike Busch

I hope everyone that celebrates had a great Christmas and hopefully, Santa delivered some new photo gear if you were good this year.

Unfortunately, we had to impose a temporary moratorium on Fox photos this week until further notice.  For those wondering why,  a young Fox family was surrounded by photographers last Spring and between people feeding them hot dogs and practically moving into the den, things got ugly.  The mother fox was so terrified that she badly injured one of the pups by trying to drag it to an alternate den.  I doubt any members of the Long Island Wildlife Photography Group were involved but by temporarily banning fox photos at least we won’t be contributing to crappy human behavior.  Getting a great shot should never be at the expense of the wildlife itself.

Thanks to Jim Botta for helping pick out the photos and congrats to Sharon Dorsey for the fantastic cover shot of a Cedar Waxwing in the snow.  I also included an incredible sequence of a Peregrine Falcon taking down a Pigeon in flight by Heff Stoppe on the last page.

Try to check out all 8 pages and feel free to share!

American Kestrel – Brian Doherty

Belted Kingfisher & Lunch – Heff Stoppe

Cedar Waxwing – Sharon Dorsey

Eastern Bluebird – Kimberly Lechner Sanchez

Green-Winged Teal – Theresa Henriksen

Northern Harrier – Dan Fiore

Northern Shoveler – Jim Botta

Red Crossbill – Brian Doherty

Ring-Necked Pheasant – Dan Fiore

Snow Geese – Bob Schmitz

Northern Cardinal – Gordon W Leonard

More Photos on Pages 2-8